As the types of power generation, generally, there are thermal power generation, nuclear power generation, hydroelectric power generation, solar power generation, wind power generation, tidal power generation, etc. That is, thermal power generation and nuclear power generation generate electricity by rotating a turbine in a power generator using vapor produced by heat, and hydroelectric power generation generates electricity by rotating a turbine using a head drop of water stored by a dam.
However, thermal power generation uses fossil fuel such as coal or oil as an energy source. The construction expense of a power plant is relative low, but the reserves of fossil fuel are limited, so there is a problem of exhaustion of the energy source and environmental contamination.
Nuclear power generation, which uses a large amount of heat that is produced by nuclear fission of a radioactive material such as uranium, can generate a large amount of electricity, but causes severe environmental contamination due to radioactivity.
Accordingly, there has been much research on hydroelectric power generation that can generate electricity without environmental contamination, and on actual systems for the hydroelectric power generation.
However, hydroelectric power generation systems use a topology having a high head drop, so geometrical environments were used or huge structures were required to obtain a high head drop from a dam.
Due to the structural barrier of providing a large head drop, the ecological connection is necessarily broken between the upstream side and the downstream side of a power plant. Further, existing hydroelectric power plants are usually constructed among the mountains with slopes that are far from cities where most users dwell, so large costs are required to construct facilities for transmission electricity.
Accordingly, a technology that can be used for a low head drop and a low flow speed has been disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2010-0104694 (published on Sep. 20, 2010), in which a rotary unit that is rotated at a low head drop and a low flow speed of water is disposed between support members installed on the ground to generate electricity, so power generation may be performed with high efficiency, but the installation place is limited to the ground, so usability is low.
Meanwhile, various floating hydroelectric power generators that are available for a low head drop and a low flow speed have been proposed, but the actual use is limited due to the following problems.
Korean Utility Model No. 20-0329785 (registered on Oct. 1, 2003) has proposed a configuration that mounts a plurality of water turbines on a floating structure and generates electricity with the water turbines submerged in water by a half or less, but the efficiency of the water turbines is necessarily lower than a floating facility, so it is inefficient.
Korean Utility Model No. 20-0415733 (registered on May 1, 2006) has proposed a configuration that installs floats at both sides on water and installs a water turbine between the floats to generate electricity, so the costs for the facility is relatively low and high-efficiency power generation is expected, but the configuration for fixing the floats and structurally combining the floats with the water turbine is not proposed in detail in terms of structural stability and practical use, so there are many unstable factors.
Korean Utility Model No. 20-0415748 (registered on May 1, 2006) has proposed a configuration that installs a water turbine on a structure floating on water such as a barge and generates electricity using the torque produced by the portion of the water turbine under the water, so the floating barge looks stable, but it is difficult to fix the barge and this configuration is inappropriate to a place keeping a small amount of water.
As described above, hydroelectric power generation systems using water turbines mounted on a floating structure may be considered as being somewhat insufficient in terms of actual use and efficiency including the costs for constructing the floating facility, and a loss of power due to the floats.
Recently, many hydroelectric and tidal power generation facilities have been developed to solve this problem. It may be considered that many hydroelectric power generation facilities using a head drop provided by an artificial reservoir to save costs of energy for generating electricity have been constructed for this reason.
In particular, since rivers on a gentle slope flow slow, it is so difficult at present to generate electricity using the rivers, and those power generation facilities have low efficiency. Accordingly, there are few power generation facilities of this type.
Accordingly, it is required to research and develop a hydroelectric power generation system that can appropriately deal with various environmental changes using a slowly flowing river and the width of the river at an area with a relatively small head drop.
Further, various pipelines such as a water supply pipe, a drain pipe, and a rainwater pipe are used to delivery water or fluid to various positions and places and various streams are generated through the pipelines, but it is difficult to efficiently generate electricity using the streams and it is also difficult to efficiently generate electricity from a low-speed streams and various positions.